Mount Allan and Mount Collembola
Completed with minimal snow. Lingering snow can make this route impossible or increase its difficulty. The easiest possible route on this loop requires passing over a single, Class III step. The entire crux section is exposed other than this first step. The difficulties of the cliff bands in between Collembola and Allan can be entirely bypassed on the southeast slopes. Your GPS map will likely not lead you in the correct direction on the crux before Collembola or on the cliff bands between Allan and Collembola, as both sections require route finding.
Both Mount Allan and Mount Collembola are high, grassy peaks that occupy a large area in between The Lougheed and the Skogan groups. These two peaks are both visible from Highway 1 near Canmore, as well as a lengthy portion of Highway 40 by Nakiska and Kananaskis Village. They are not nearly as impressive as their nearby neighbors, The Lougheeds, Mount Sparrowhawk, Mount Bogart, etc. but they do provide rather simple ascents with great views. Mount Allan and its subpeak, Olympic Summit, are home to the popular Nakiska Ski Resort, where the ski events for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics were held. An interesting fact about the Centennial Ridge Trail is that it is the highest official trail in the Canadian Rockies. Now, although the history behind the name of Mount Allan is quite mundane, Collembola, on the other hand, has quite the interesting story. Collembolas are snow fleas that are native to the Arctic, but also exist at high elevations in the Canadian Rockies. Utilizing the fact that this peak was an easy ascent, Jan Sharp frequently ascended it to do research for her doctoral research on the species. Admiring her tenacity, employees of the nearby Ribbon Creek Hostel named the peak in her honor.
Park at what I like to call the Pigeon parking lot, which is just past the Banff Mountain Gate Resort. It is a bit weird to find, so the directions above are quite handy. The parking lot is about a 50 minute drive from the Calgary city limits. It is also important to note that the Centennial Ridge Trail is closed from April 1st to June 21st every year to protect the breeding and birthing period of bighorn sheep. Please be mindful of this and do not attempt this objective during that time period.
From the trailhead, begin hiking and immediately take a right turn towards the Centennial Ridge Trail. Soon after, take a left to get on to the Centennial Ridge Trail. Continue up this very long trail, gaining about 650 m of elevation in 6 km. At the final intersection (easy to miss), you can choose to do the loop clockwise or counter clockwise, along many other trip options, including just doing a single peak and heading to the Jubilee Valley/Tarns. This route describes the clockwise loop. At the turn, take the left option and hike straight up. Care and a GPS route finding method (Alltrails is good) is needed to stay on the route as it tends to disappear at times. Once you reach the treeline, most signs of a trail should be gone altogether. No matter, keep walking up the ridge and through the expansive meadow, finding weaknesses in the occasional cliff band. As a general rule, stay close to the ridge, but cliff band detours should be quite obvious at the climber’s right (but not too far right). Continue gaining elevation through the lovely meadow and over a couple short scrambling sections. The crux section will eventually become apparent. Hike up scree until you reach the base of the crux. The first small (Class III) cliff band must be ascended, but afterwards, you have two options. The ideal way would be to just scramble straight up. This part is a bit exposed, but easier than it looks (at hardest it’s easy 4th). If this is a bit unnerving, traverse a big ledge to the left and soon find your way up grass ledges back to the climber’s right (exposed once again, but easier). From the top of the crux, take a short walk to the summit. To continue the loop, head down the easy slopes towards Mount Allan. Once you come across the big cliff band blocking the ridge, there are several options. Once again, ideally you would tackle the ridge or close to it, but this could get into fifth class. Instead, easier terrain can be found the further left that you go and the scrambling could possibly be almost completely avoided, but with the cost of losing and regaining elevation. The simplest approach here is to stick slightly left of the ridge and scramble up the 3-4 significant steps by finding the most appropriate route. After this, it is simply a walk down to the col and a long scree slog to the summit of Mount Allan (stick closer to the ridge to the climber’s right for more solid terrain). From the summit, head down to the north and on the very obvious Centennial Ridge Trail. The trail is well cairned and there is plenty of walking in meadows and on scree. After a while, an obvious cairn will lead you down to the right and on a short but exposed scrambling section (YDS II). The trail then traverses on a cliffy slope for a ways before descending and then flattening out on the ridge once again. The trail then switches back and you drop down into the valley. Continue through meadows and then on a lengthy traverse in the trees where your trail then rejoins the Mount Collembola route. Descend on the Centennial Ridge Trail back to the parking lot the way that you came up.
This day was one of Sam’s ideas since he looks over to Collembola on a daily basis from Canmore. He had already claimed Mount Allan (and so had my Dad and I), but wanted to make a big day out of a loop of both peaks. At first glance, it seems that this would be an easy and straightforward trip, just a long day of hiking. Apparently not. From a few scattered trip reports, I pieced together that there were two individual and lengthy crux sections that would add some fun into the mix, with the rest being largely on a trail.
Being as this day packed quite the elevation and distance, it would fit perfectly to train for our backpacking trip which we would do the following weekend. We packed some extra water and clothes weight in our packs to increase the training effect even more.
We were planning on doing the loop clockwise, in order to avoid any downclimbing, and would start at the Pigeon parking lot. There are many variations of trips that can be done with Mount Collembola and Mount Allan, such as point to points or loops. Both peaks can also be done individually, each having multiple ascent routes. No wonder I couldn’t find many trips reports to match our exact route! I was almost expecting us to be the only ones up there, just judging from the lack of interest online (was I ever wrong though, this is trail runners’ galore).
We set off early (7:45am early, so not that early), in order to beat the heat for the climb up. We had already talked to two trail runners who were doing an out and back over both peaks to the Ribbon parking lot and then back over, and there would be many more.
The trailhead.
We made our way on the big trail for a while, paying attention to the “Centennial Ridge Trail” markers, which made it fairly obvious where to turn. About three or four more trail runners came blazing by, all doing adventures of their own. This hike was a lot more popular than I thought.
A nice little bench looking over at Big Sister and Middle Sister.
The red streak on Rimwall was incredibly intriguing. Maybe someone died, or cut their thumb or something. Or it’s an iron deposit rusting out, yeah, probably that.
After about 6 km and 650 m of elevation, you will come to this obvious turn off. The way we did it, you turn left and go up the ridge to Collembola, otherwise, the right turn follows the Centennial Ridge Trail to mount Allan or the Jubilee valley/tarns, either way will be a fun adventure.
After our turn off, the tiny trail deteriorated and was full of bush. It was also really steep. I’m guessing we gained about 200 meters of elevation, and very quickly, before breaking through to the treeline.
We finally broke above the tree line. There was only a faint trail in some parts at this point, but it was easy walking on the grassy meadow.
This is where we took our first break to eat and put sunscreen on, because the day would be a grind and a scorcher. This spot is nice to fuel up for the climb ahead, and has some great first views of the Bow Valley.
Looking back at the Bow Valley and the long walk in the trees that we had come up. Many peaks are visible even here, and many more would be soon.
Pigeon mountain is a nice hike. You can even see the trail going through the grass if you look hard enough.
Continuing up the ridge.
On the next portion there will be many false peaks, each guarded by an easy cliff band that are generally climbed via a weakness somewhere on the climber’s right.
An example of the weakness in the first cliff band (the cliff in the previous picture). The route goes up here. I had to put my hand down once for this so I guess at this point it officially turned into a scramble. The Lougheeds behind. They would be the stars of the show for almost the entire day.
One of the larger bumps on the seemingly never ending ridge. At least it was a nice meadow with great views, so I can’t really complain, I was just happy to be up there.
Some pretty wildflowers.
Looking at the summit of Mount Collembola. It honestly looks scary. Fisher Peak is the snowy one at left, Bogart at right.
A nice pano from the ridge. Allan is at center, and then Lougheeds at right. You can basically see the entire ridge that the Centennial Ridge trail takes (where we would be descending).
A nice picture of Ezra, Ferris, and I walking on the ridge. I don’t often see Bogart from this angle, but it still looks great.
Getting closer to the exciting part. The summit is directly behind. There is a trail that leads up the scree to a ledge below the crux.
Ezra begins up the not-so-optional third class step.
As can be seen, there is still a fair amount of snow, which meant that our options were a bit more limited on this ascent. Ezra, Ferris, and I opted to go straight up the ridge on a somewhat challenging step marked by the red line on the right side of the image. The route that Sam and my Dad took is the route shown by the red line that is to the left side of the image. They ascended an easy, but exposed gully, and then traversed back to the right up grassy ledges. Their route was more similar to what I’ve seen in other trip reports, although if you want a challenge, the line straight up the ridge is fun and far quicker. There are many ways up this crux area, and generally it is easier than it looks, but always use your route finding skills to make sure you are on terrain that suits your ability and comfort level.
Ferris makes his way up the optional challenging section. Again it looks harder than it is. There are decent holds and the rock is generally solid on this part of the cliff band.
Me coming up that same section.
The summit was only a few moments away once we got up the crux section.
A look at the avoidable cliff bands guarding “little Collembola” on the way to Mount Allan.
Summit pano. The Bow Valley at left, with all its wonderful peaks, then the Pigeon Skogan area at center (I haven’t been up many of those peaks), and lots of Kananaskis peaks at right.
Looking the other way. I’ve mentioned most of these peaks already.
We descended to the Collembola and Little Collembola col rather quickly after a bit of summit enjoyment. We then decided to take the cliff bands straight on for some fun scrambling. Again, the difficulties within these cliff bands are basically avoidable by trudging along the southeast slopes, so to the left of the image. Although I don’t know the exact route, and there is obviously some routefinding involved, you shouldn't have to go over much more than easy terrain. Perhaps a tiny bit of 3rd class. Anyways, back to our route. We noticed that what looks like one big cliff band is actually three separate ones with big, flat ledges in between, so there would be three scrambling sections for this optional route.
Ezra works his way through a tough overhang (into technical 5th class) to get over the first cliff band.
The final move of the section. Me and Ferris weren’t brave enough (or skilled enough) to commit to the whole thing after trying the bottom part and failing. We followed Sam and my Dad and scrambled over easier terrain to the climber’s left and out of sight.
The second step. Good holds on this one too, and the rock is quite solid.
The third cliff band was the shortest and easiest of all of them, which we ascended quickly.
Looking at Mount Allan from “Little Collembola”. We still had a long way to descend.
A close up of the wildflowers. Wherever there were meadows, there were beautiful wildflowers. And there were a lot of meadows.
Near the col, we decided to do a time trial up to Allan and were shooting for under 30 minutes for the roughly 300 m of elevation. Ezra, Ferris, and I ended up crushing it in under 25 minutes, so we were still doing good fitness wise, even at five hours in. We then took a very lengthy break at the summit and chatted with another group.
Looking back at Mount Collembola from our second summit of the day, Mount Allan.
A majestic creature soaking in the views on the summit of Mount Allan.
Sam looking over at Mount Kidd, slightly to the left of him. At right is Mount Bogart and just below it is Bogart Tower. Also notice around the tower there are actually two lakes (well three, but one isn’t visible) called the Memorial Lakes, which were named after the many plane crashes that occurred in that area in the 80s.
Summit pano looking towards the Lougheeds and Memorial Lakes.
Summit pano looking back towards Collembola. Olympic Summit and Nakiska are at lower right.
After our lengthy stay, we decided we should better get moving so we could make it back in good time. The rest of the trail was straightforward, and was marked by cairns, paint, and markers.
Looking back at Mount Allan.
Walking through the pinnacles with the Bow Valley ahead.
Fisher Peak is still visible right above the col.
A look at Collembola and “Little Collembola”, there is a decent route between them that leads down to the Jubilee Valley and Jubilee tarns below. The big one with the round island is called Queen’s tarn and there is a trail/route to the tarns from the valley if you’d like to visit them.
A nice shot looking back at the ridge to Allan, plus you can’t forget the Lougheeds.
Here's the marker that leads you down a short scrambling section.
The short and steep scrambling section on the trail.
The next part of the trail actually has some very interesting features and great views. I think if I was wanting to just do Mount Allan, I would try to arrange a point-to-point to hike the full length of the Centennial Ridge Trail.
Looking back at the ridge. Wind Mountain (Lougheed IV) looks scary at right.
Shortly after this picture, we switched back and descended into the valley. We then began walking over to meet up with the Collembola off shoot trail and then descended back on the never ending trails to the parking lot.
Traversing for a while to get back to the Collembola ridge and then to rejoin the trail.
Back at the parking lot! One of those crazy trailrunners probably biked here from Calgary and then did an ultramarathon for training.
We said our goodbyes to Sam and were once again satisfied with a great day out. It was awesome that I could bag Collembola today, and I guess adding on Allan was fine for the fitness, plus it was only a 20 minute grind up for me from the col to the summit anyways. The meadows and flowers were extraordinary at this time of year, and the loop provided some great, low/mid exposure scrambling experience too, which was the perfect practice terrain. The loop ended up being a lot more popular than I thought (at least 5 other people were doing Collembola on this day), especially with all the trail runners doing their crazy adventures. No complaints with this one other than perhaps a long approach, and a single annoying horsefly, but that’s just how it goes. Overall, great scenery, views, scrambling, and a wonderful experience overall out in the mountains, so we were all for it.